Barack Obama And Donald J. Trump

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

First off, the topic of government surveillance has continued to be a controversy in it’s own regard, especially in the United States since the attacks of 9/11. Although citizens have remained uninformed of the true scope of domestic spying, some government employees have questioned just how far the NSA is truly reaching into the private lives of American citizens. For example, prior to Snowden’s leaks, U.S senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had been stating vague warnings

About two summers ago I watched a documentary titled Terms and Conditions May Apply which was released in 2013 not long after Edward Snowden became a household name. The documentary, while I do not remember it in its entirety, did focus on much of what Steven Rambam discusses in regards to the information that we willingly give up. After viewing it, I was scared out of my pants but still did nothing to change my patterns because of a dependence that Rambam mentions but also partially due to the fact I don’t post much online and regardless, “once it’s on the internet, it’s out there.” Rambam’s presentation was a nice reminder of what I have at stake and what we, as a people, have at stake especially in light of Apple v FBI.

Critics of Edward Snowden label him a traitor and a coward. They condemn him for irreparably harming government security operations and setting of a worldwide chain of events that weakened the American position on the world stage. While America now has blight on its records due to the leaks, the topic that should be addressed is should the whistle-blower, the man who uncovered and exposed the questionable and wrong activities, be blamed or should those who allowed the illegal and immoral activities be held accountable for what they started. Edward Snowden had the justification and conviction to do the correct thing and present the incriminating evidence straight to the public. When one takes in consideration everything that Snowden has lost because of his decision, there was little gain for him to make the immoral activities public. Snowden’s crime is breaching the trust of his government contract to expose egregious monitoring by the government on the American public. In an interview conducted by the Washington Post, Snowden speaks out about his goal in releasing the files: “All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,”

After discovering that the National Security Agency had the ability to use its surveillance system to spy on billions of people through electronic devices, Snowden leaked to the public documents that contained information about these surveillance practices. Millions of American citizens were disturbed to find out that their own government was

Privacy throughout the ages has been something people have valued and expected to have. Everyone has the right to their little own secrets and live life the constant watching of others. As technology advances throughout each decade, the world has become more and more accessible through a computer screen. Everyday activities have integrated with technology, from shopping online to requesting transportation through a phone app. Although technology makes everyday life convenient, it also leaves behind a digital footprint or data that can be seen by others. People were unaware that, through this technology, their privacy was being intruded upon by the government until Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA were secretly conducting illegal spying on the American people. This revelation by Snowden opened the eyes of the American public to the truth. In my eyes, Snowden’s actions ultimately make him a hero, someone who jeopardized his life and stood up to the law for what he believed was the right thing to do.

On May 20th, 2013, one man singlehandedly committed one of the most controversial actions in the United States government’s history. He released over ten thousand classified documents regarding the CIA, NSA, and other branches of government intelligence. This man’s name is Edward Joseph Snowden and he built quite the resume for himself, not that he will need it now. Before leaking thousands of classified documents, Snowden used to be an employee for the CIA. It wasn’t until he got higher up in the rankings with the CIA when he starting seeing what some of these files contained. After being appalled by what he saw, Snowden took matters into his own hands and let the public see exactly what he was seeing. To understand more of what Snowden did, we have to go back before he decided to commit his crime.

Unless you were hiding beneath a rock in 2014, you saw the nation’s reaction to the release of classified NSA documents by the infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, who worked as the lead technologist for Dell, managed their accounts with the Central Intelligence Agency. It was in this position that Snowden began to notice some classified documents that didn’t make sense. These documents contained information on the National Security Agency illegally spying on their own citizens. It was at this time in 2012 that Snowden began downloading some of these files for himself. It is estimated that he downloaded somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 files on the espionage efforts of the United States (Borrough, Ellison, Andrews, 2014). Now, Snowden needed to get the files out to the people. He attempted to contact a few media outlets around the world who would not go through the trouble to follow his strict encryption methods. Snowden eventually contacted documentarian Laura Poitras, who had recently written an article on a separate whistleblower that caught Snowden’s attention. Poitras states in an interview with Salon.com that, “…he’d contacted me because my border harassment meant that I’d been a person who had been selected. To be selected –and he went through a whole litany of things — means that everything you do, every friend you have, every purchase you make, every street you cross means you’re being watched” (Carmon, 2013). This connect lead to Snowden being

We have fought for politicians and our governments to be more transparent through the years, and we have made strides to do that with the rise of technology. The government now shares majority of its actions online so that citizens can stay informed, and this is generally a good thing. But The Circle brings up and important issue of when is there enough transparency? When do we stop being transparent and let people have their privacy? As companies like Apple and Google continue to create new innovations our society will have to address these issues. In the future we should strive to create technologies that will reduce crimes, increase honesty in governments, and allow people to interact with each. We should not create these technologies at the cost of personal privacy or loss of real life interactions. We do not want a future where kids do not know how to interact on a playground or where adults cannot talk to each other meaningfully in person because they have lost social skills. We also do not want to lose our personal privacy, so that people feel embarrassed about their actions, and by making life more transparent we are also making it less enjoyable by being self

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the democratic nominee running for this upcoming presidency in 2016. Clinton was born on October 26th, 1947, in Chicago Illinois (bio). She is no surprise to the white house and political issues having been the first lady herself. She became the first lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 when her husband Bill Clinton was president (bio). She also became the first wife of a president and woman to be a U.S senator, representing New York (bio). In 2007, Clinton announced her run for presidency a first time but ended up dropping out of the nomination because Barack Obama had majority vote (bio). When Barack Obama became president he appointed Hillary Clinton the 67th U.S secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 (bio). Now she’s in the running for presidency again alongside representative candidate Donald Trump.

TOXEN, B. (2014). The NSA and Snowden: Securing the All-Seeing Eye. Communications Of The ACM, 57(5), 44-51. doi:10.1145/2594502

One of the most scandalous and controversial leaks of classified information was the whistle blowing campaign of Edward J. Snowden. Mr. Snowden had exposed and shared an enormous amount of classified documents about the National Security Agency’s surveillance on the American populace. Snowden admits he exposed the information because he believes the NSA and U.S. government were using surveillance and privacy information collection practices that deeply violated the U.S. people. Once he released all of the classified information, he was immediately marked as a traitor to the U.S., or as a matriarch/hero to the people that believed he did the right thing exposing the NSA and its illegal and unethical practices. When this situation came into the public’s knowledge, the response from the White House was questionable and lacking. The position from President Obama was that “You can’t have 100 percent security, and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience” (Commonweal, 2013).

Case 6-B titled “WikiLeaks” discusses the controversy surrounding Julian Assange, CEO and editor of an organization called WikiLeaks. Assange started his career as an Australian hacker, with the ethical thought that keeping secrets, especially national secrets were bad. Assange was first brought to media attention after WikiLeaks released video footage of Iran citizens gunned down by an American Apache

Well, it is official. Thousands of American soldiers will stay on in Afghanistan after 2016. US President Barack Obama halted the troop drawdown on October 15 because “Afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be.”

Americans like to know things. With the most complex of information available with a simple Google search and breaking news updates instantly accessible via smart phones, the United States has adopted a culture that demands to know what is going on. That being said, it is no wonder Americans were outranged upon discovering their government had been discreetly monitoring their activity. The spark that ignited the controversy of mass surveillance initially arose in early 2013, when former CIA {Central Intelligence Agency} and NSA {National Security Agency} employee Edward Snowden “leaked information about the United States government’s highly classified mass surveillance programs” to journalists from several major publications, including the Washington Post and the Guardian (Edward Snowden).